It’s Presidential election time for Hillary Clinton, and those campaign ads don’t pay for themselves. So it’s time to hit the road and talk to some people with money about why she needs their money. That means parties! And according to the amazing Political Party Time website hosted by the Sunlight Foundation, Madame Secretary’s dance card is full.
Tomorrow, Hillary will be going to Chicago to have a conversation with Sabrina and Antonio Gracias at their lovely home on Chicago’s Gold Coast. She loves conversations and has them almost every day. I wonder if she would come to the lovely one bedroom apartment I share with my lovely spouse and have a conversation with us? I make a mean seven-layer bean dip. I might even throw in a dollar for her campaign. I’m not kidding.
Sabrina and Antonio Gracias
When
Feb. 17th, 2016 (12:30 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.)
Where
TBD - Chicago, IL
Type of Event
Conversation with Hillary
RSVP
HillaryClinton.com
Now, some rude meanies are saying that the people throwing these parties are only doing it to gain influence with her.
In her speech conceding to Sanders her loss in New Hampshire, Clinton vowed she would take on Wall Street and the big corporations.
However, according to the blog International Business Times, Clinton had already scheduled “a series of fundraisers with officials from Wall Street, the food industry, the fossil fuel sector and other industries aiming to shape (federal) policies of the next president.”
Clinton is scheduled to appear at fundraisers sponsored by Black Rock, “a Wall Street colossus,” according to the IBT. After that she is slated to “attend a Chicago fund-raiser at the home of Valor Equity Partners Founder Antonio Gracias,” which has invested in drug, automobile and energy companies that are closely regulated by the federal government, the IBT said.
The Clinton campaign declined to respond to a request from this column on Thursday for comment on the IBT charges.
That’s just scurrilous conjecture, and since this a positive diary written to celebrate how popular Hillary is, I don’t want to see any negative pie fights in the comments. Okay? Looking through the Political Party Time calendar and telling us about all the wonderful people that throw parties for Hillary would be awesome, though.
I’ll start us off with Antonio Gracias. He is the founder of Valor Equity Partners. Valor invests in really cool companies like Space-X and Tesla, and solar energy, and even yoga mats. I have a yoga mat! I can’t afford a Tesla but I sure would like one.
Unfortunately, Bernie Sanders doesn’t like one of Valor’s investment partners Marathon Pharmaceuticals because he thinks Marathon has something to do with Pharma-bro Martin Shkreli.
In August, two members of Congress investigating generic drug price increases wrote to Valeant Pharmaceuticals after that company acquired two heart drugs, Isuprel and Nitropress, from Marathon Pharmaceuticals and promptly raised their prices by 525 percent and 212 percent respectively. Marathon had acquired the drugs from another company in 2013 and had quintupled their prices, according to the lawmakers, Senator Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent who is seeking the Democratic nomination for president, and Representative Elijah E. Cummings, Democrat of Maryland.
That’s really a stretch and Bernie should be ashamed of himself.
http://www.courthousenews.com/2016/01/04/class-accuses-pharma-firms-of-price-gouging.htm
In 2014, Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont Independent currently making a bid for the White House as a Democrat, launched an investigation into the skyrocketing prices of generic drugs. S Sanders invited the CEOs of Lannett, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and Marathon Pharmaceuticals to testify at the hearings but none agreed to appear, the complaint said.
The class names as defendants Actavis Group, Apotex Corp., Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, Endo International, Forest Laboratories, Heritage Pharmaceuticals, K-V Pharmaceutical Company, Lannett Company, Marathon Pharmaceuticals, Par Pharmaceutical Companies, Ranbaxy Laboratories, Sandoz, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Watson Pharmaceuticals, West-Ward Pharmaceutical Corp. and Zydus Pharmaceuticals USA.
This is exactly why Bernie never gets invited to parties like Hillary does and none of Hillary’s friends like him.
Remember, this is a positive diary — for Hillary. Bernie’s fair game.
Party on, guys and gals.